Monthly Archives: July 2017

When my husband and I heard the news that the owners of Lake Country Bakery (Dan & Kim) were retiring and selling their business we were bummed at the thought of our downtown losing this little gem that sits just two spots down from THE NINES. This little bakery has been around forever and has always been a place where we treat our kids to a periodic fresh snail donut or a dinosaur cookie. Every morning you can smell the freshly baked bread & donuts smell that permeates Washington Avenue and it’s hard to imagine not having that anymore. We knew that other people in our community also liked this bakery but we had no idea that this little bakery was supplying most of our favorite local restaurants ( Brew, Lakeside, Hub 41, Hotel Shoreham, Zorbaz, Bleachers, Holiday Inn to name a few), and our local hospitals, hotels & gas stations with bread, buns, donuts, cakes and other goodies to the point where Dan & Kim can hardly keep up with their booming bakery business.

Dan & Kim are ready to retire now but dreamed of selling their bakery to someone who would keep it a bakery for the community to enjoy. My husband and I talked a lot about buying the bakery but just wasn’t sure if we should pull the trigger. I tried to put the bakery idea in the back of my head and forget about it, much like I did four years ago when I had what I thought was a crazy idea of opening a clothing store called THE NINES lol! Like clockwork things would keep popping up that made us think this bakery thing might be meant to be. Including our trip to Magnolia Market in Waco a few months ago where our plan was to get inspired for a little home decor nook in our Nines store but I ended up falling in love with Joanna’s little bakery while we were there. It was another big sign. I told my husband that I don’t want anything for our life that wasn’t in the cards but I do believe sometimes you have to push the envelope and not just wait for things to fall into your lap. So late one night I asked my husband to post something on his personal Facebook page and ask for experienced bakers who were looking for a new experience and if we got any bites we should take it as a sign it was meant to be and if we fall flat we give up and chalk it up to it was meant for someone else. We ended up finding talented bakers and an award winning cake decorator so we took that as the final signs that we were meant to buy this adorable little bakery!

I don’t know if I wanted to buy this bakery because food has always been one of my passions or if the HGTV lover in me and my husband couldn’t wait to update and revamp this bakery into the bakery of our dreams or if it was knowing from one entrepreneur couple to another how much time, sweat, tears & love has been poured into this business by Dan & Kim over the last 25 years but something touched us and we felt we needed to keep it running.

Dan & Kim are staying on with us at the bakery through the summer to train and teach our amazing baking team all of their recipes for a smooth transition. We want the community to be a big part of this bakery so we will be doing taste tests and other fun promotions very soon. This fall/winter we will begin the renovation process where we will be revamping this sweet little spot with my creative ideas and my husband’s amazing carpentry skills. The bakery will stay open it’s normal hours throughout this process. We look forward to serving you at what we will be renaming “Crafted Bakery” as everything we bake will be hand crafted from scratch just like the good old days. We are excited and so proud to continue on with many of Dan & Kim’s recipes and will also be adding lots of our personal favorite recipes inspired from our home and our travels Like our Crafted Bakery page to stay updated!